Ldk?? Wtf??

[gitchegumee]

I hate to post my ignorance, but I've checked DeClerck and others and cannot find what LDK means with reference to malt extractability. Could someone educate an ASBC-kinda-guy with a definition, conversion formulas to simple cg-db %, and a reason why UK maltsters use this figure? Thanks in advance!!

[Roger Greene]

Hey,

I believe you are looking at liter degrees per kilogram. Check out this link, it contins the method.

http://www.ibd.org.uk/cms/file/314

[gitchegumee]

Great! Right! Starting to make sense. So, apparently the "degrees" correspond to specific gravity? Something like 1.0465 specific gravity would be equal to 46.5 degrees in this method? I've read that I divide the LDK by 386 to get ASBC FGDB? So a malt with LDK=305 would be 79% FGDB. Sounds about right, eh?

[Roger Greene]

Yeah.

Here is an example.

to make 2 hl of wort with a gravity of 1.0450 with a yield of 90% and a malt of 305 LDK.

200 l * 45 GU/l = 9000 GU

9000 GU / .9 = 10000 GU

10000 GU / 305 GU/kg = 32.79 kg

[gitchegumee]

Thank you so much. That makes sense and does help explain why this unit is in use--it's pretty straightforward. This board is great! Buy you a beer next time you're in Palau. Or when I'm in Scotland!